The present invention relates to will call systems for the storage and retrieval of items. In particular the invention is directed to the improved management of the storage and retrieval of items through the use of an automated will call system.
Will call systems and automated storage and retrieval systems are widely used to store, retrieve, and dispense articles. A benefit of such systems is in the speed and efficiency with which items can be stored, retrieved, and dispensed. However, automation has primarily been reserved for the vending machine and central warehouse environments.
Storage and retrieval systems including rotatable storage and retrieval receptacles are known. In such systems, a main platter or shelf is rotated to a window that makes all the storage positions on the shelf available to the window. U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,592 (Bradt et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,649 (Pelletier et al.) all show storage systems with circular arrangements of receptacles in the context of systems designed to store specific articles, such as video tapes and magnetic tapes. The systems shown in those patents cannot, however, accommodate articles of different size. U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,438 (Munro) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,403 (Beidle et al.) disclose storage and retrieval systems having a stationary storage unit with a moving retrieval system, such as a moving arm. Such a retrieval system takes up a large amount of floor space, which is usually at a premium. Another disadvantage of the systems disclosed in those patents is the length of time necessary to retrieve an article.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,920 (Clausen) shows such a device further including a computer system to control the drive assembly to automate the storage and retrieval process. Clausen also provides for the replacement of an item on a storage shelf. However, Clausen does not provide a way to ensure that an item is replaced in the correct location. There is no way to check or supervise the user to keep errors in storage and retrieval to a minimum. The Clausen system may reduce the time for retrieval of an item, but there is no way of checking if items are misplaced.
All of the above cited patents have several drawbacks. First, there is no efficient way to remove articles from the system that remain longer than necessary. In the systems disclosed in those patents, there is no way of determining the age of articles stored. If articles are perishable or otherwise have a value which diminishes the longer the articles remain in the system, there will be waste, loss of potential revenue, and other problems. Second, there is no mechanism to ensure that items are stored and retrieved correctly, i.e., there is no way to minimize operator error. Finally, no system has addressed the handling of controlled articles such as prescription drugs.
To reduce costs, the central fill method of dispensing prescriptions is a growing trend. Demographics indicate that between now and the year 2004, the volume of centrally filled prescriptions will grow from 2.4 billion prescriptions per year to 4.0 billion prescriptions per year, a 40% increase. However, the number of pharmacists will increase by only slightly more than 6% over the same period.
Some systems do exist for batch filling of prescriptions on a volume basis. U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,762 (Charhut et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,257 (Soderstrom et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,995 (Williams et al.) disclose automated systems for prescription filling at a central location, such as for mail order or for batch filling and later delivery to a local pharmacy. Prescriptions are entered into the automated system, automatically filled, packed and labeled, and then delivered to a location for distribution and subsequent patient pickup. Those patents disclose high volume prescription filling systems, but the systems disclosed do not address the problems related to the pick-up of completed prescriptions, where prescriptions could be misplaced, never picked up, or, even worse, dispensed to the wrong patient.
Currently prescriptions enter the pharmacy by several common methods. 1) Hard copy prescriptions are physically brought to the pharmacy by the patient or the patient""s representative. The patient either waits for the prescription (or, xe2x80x9cscriptxe2x80x9d) to be filled, or drops off the script and returns at a later time to retrieve the filled prescription. 2) A doctor or the doctor""s representative phones in a new prescription to the local pharmacy and the patient goes to the pharmacy to pick it up after it has been filled. 3) A patient or the patient""s representative brings in a previously filled prescription that is renewable or otherwise requests that a renewable prescription be refilled. This request may be made in person or over the phone. For those prescriptions physically brought into the pharmacy, the patient either waits for the prescription to be refilled, or drops off the prescription and returns at a later time to retrieve the refilled prescription.
Almost every retail chain, independent drug store, and outpatient/clinic pharmacy setting currently has some form of manual will call system. The basic functions of a manual will call system are to retrieve a previously filled prescription and hand it to the patient when the patient comes to the pharmacy. There are various physical forms and methods for manual will call. The most common procedure has prescriptions being individually filled and placed into bags, the bags then being filed, alphabetically by last name, in a series of bins or trays located near the point of sale terminals in the pharmacy. This procedure is highly inefficient and prone to error. Disruptions are common to this process and can create a high level of chaos resulting in one or more of the following problems.
Prescriptions can be placed in the wrong bin or tray for pickup. Time is lost looking for a prescription that has been misfiled. When prescriptions are misfiled, the productivity of pharmacy personnel is reduced, the patient faces increased waiting time, and, in extreme cases, the prescription has to be filled a second time (double fill). In high customer demand periods, this can be extremely disruptive and expensive.
The risk of giving a patient the wrong medication is increased in manual will call systems. It is not uncommon for a clerk, particularly during a busy period, to pick up the wrong bag and hand it to the patient without noticing the error. It is not unusual for a patient to also overlook the mistake. The risk of a patient receiving and taking the wrong medication is quite serious and, unfortunately, very real.
Many patients require multiple medications. They may be filled at different times, and placed separately in the bins for pick up. With manual will call systems, there is an increased likelihood that the pharmacy will fail to give the patient all of his prescriptions, since the prescriptions may not always be grouped together in the bins for pick-up. If the patient is not able to pick up all of his prescriptions at once, an additional trip by the patient to the pharmacy is necessary or, even worse, the patient does not realize that there are multiple prescriptions and will not be in compliance with the drug therapy established by the physician.
In addition, most current pharmacy management systems (PMS) do not provide electronic ordering or family grouping of prescriptions. Different members of a household may individually require different medications. With most existing systems, there is no way of assuring that all of the prescriptions for a given household are placed together for pick-up. This can lead to multiple trips to the pharmacy by members of the same household, when all prescriptions could have been collected at one time if they had been grouped together.
From the pharmacy""s point of view, unclaimed prescriptions present a problem. An increasing number of prescriptions presented to the pharmacy for dispensing are never picked up by the patient. In most retail pharmacy settings, the pharmacy staff may not necessarily know that a patient has not picked up a prescription and/or does not have the time to call the patient to provide as many reminders as necessary to have the prescription picked up. This lack of a means to remind the patient that a prescription is ready for pickup increases the likelihood that it will never be picked up at all and, therefore, never sold. If unclaimed prescriptions accumulate, they can clog pick up locations and slow down retrieval and increase patient waiting time. They can also represent a loss of revenue to the pharmacy, since medications already dispensed cannot be reused and, if not picked up, constitute waste. Moreover, some medications are perishable, and must be used quickly. If such medications remain unclaimed for too long, they must be discarded and, in some cases, re-dispensed when a patient finally appears to claim them. This leads to increased cost to the pharmacy and, ultimately, to the patient. To clear out unclaimed prescriptions, manual removal or purging of unclaimed prescriptions is required, which is very time consuming and tedious. Most pharmacies do not have the staff or the time to conveniently perform a purge function, thus exacerbating the tendency of the manual will call system to become clogged.
Floor space within a retail chain or independent pharmacy, as well as outpatient and clinic pharmacies, is at a premium. Many of the current will call systems fail to provide a high storage density.
Also, the confidentiality of patients is given a very high priority. Accordingly, the current manually operated bins must be placed far enough away from the sales counter so that the prescription information on the labels cannot be read by other customers. This, of course, runs counter to the need to use less floor space within the pharmacy area, and reduces the efficiency of the will call process. Related confidentiality issues may require that one family member not learn of prescriptions dispensed to other family member. Thus, in some cases there may be a good reason not to group together multiple prescriptions from the same household. Manual will call systems are vulnerable to inadvertently grouping together prescriptions which should remain separate.
The present invention remedies the above disadvantages through automated electronic monitoring of the storage and retrieval of the filled prescriptions.
The present invention provides an improved method and apparatus for the management of the storage and removal of items, especially, although not necessarily, filled prescriptions. The present invention provides an efficient and accurate will call function by optimizing the storage of items and by electronically tracking the insertion and removal of items.
The automated will call system of the invention tracks the items stored within the system with xe2x80x9cabsolute confirmation,xe2x80x9d ensuring that items are inserted and retrieved correctly. The location of stored items is maintained in a memory until the items are removed. Accordingly, there is a reduction in the potential for errors. There is also a reduction in the dispensing of incomplete orders from the will call system by grouping the items according to user-created criteria.
The invention provides high density storage for items by using storage cabinets configured to occupy a minimum of floor space, while providing large storage volume.
The invention also provides for reminders to be automatically sent to patients to pick up items that remain in the will call system for a user-specified time period, permitting the user to use staff time more productively. In addition, an automatic purge process facilitates the removal of items that have remained within the will call system for a user-specified time.
System diagnostic functions provide a way of evaluating the efficiency of the system and user personnel, which helps to lower will call operating costs.
In one embodiment, the present invention is an automated will call system for the management of the storage and retrieval of items, comprising at least one of each of an input source, a storage unit, a user work station, and an article sensor, all in communication with a controller. The controller receives identification data associated with an item to be stored within the system, and stores the identification data in memory. The controller assigns the item a unique storage location within the storage unit. Upon sensing insertion of the item into the unique storage location, by the article sensor, the controller maintains the unique storage location in memory. When the removal of an item from a storage location is sensed by the article sensor, the controller deletes the unique location from memory.